Many of us who are interested in understanding more of Traditional Chinese
Medicine (TCM thereafter, encompassing acupuncture, herbs, massage, cupping,
moxibustion, Tui-Na, Gua-Sha, etc.) and acupuncture in particular may have
critical doubts and questions in our mind such as why the theory of TCM is
vastly different from modern sciences. For example, the TCM theory
constantly refers to Qi – the flow of energy, which is not found in modern
western medicine; or the meridians composed of hundreds of acu-points, which
don’t even exist according to modern anatomy and physiology. Yet TCM has
treated and cured billions of patients using or not using these theories
since ancient times. One may ask why the educational systems of TCM didn’t
teach students advanced biomedical sciences. To give these questions
complete and comprehensive answers, we have to look back to the seemingly
perplex yet highly consequential historical background.

In the three centuries before the last feudalist dynasty ended in 1911, this
rebelling country- China, went through many foreign invasions, such as
Sino-British Opium War (1840-1842AD), Sino-Japanese War (中日甲午戰爭1895),
China-Russian War, Anglo-French Invasion of Peking War(1860), China-French
War, and Rebellion of Keng Tzu( Eight Nation Allied War 1899-1900AD). China
was forced to swallow fiascos in all of those wars. As a defeated nation,
China had to pay the prize of a lot of warfare expenses to those foreign
countries – billions and billions of ounces of gold and properties. Even
worse, China lost many strategically important territories: Okinawa was
taken away by Japan; so was Taiwan which had been ruled by Japan for 50
years; parts of the nation - Hong Kong and Cow Long - became British
colonies. Over the top of that were many unfair treaties and loss of
numerous lives. As a result, this nation became weaker and weaker, poorer
and poorer.

The revolutionist, Dr. Sun-Yet-Sen, finally in 1911, successfully overthrew
the corrupted and stubborn Manchurian Ching Dynasty – the Last Emperor, and
founded the first democratic nation – Republic of China (ROC) in Asia. And
in the early years of ROC, a group of “patriots” started various
reforming movements, such as the May 4th movements (五四運動1915
– 1919) in order to revitalize the county, making it richer, stronger and
more prosperous. They highly propagated, valued and adopted Science and
Democracy in a hope to fully westernize this new nation. Mr. S&D (Science
and Democracy) prevailed. In that period of time, if anything was considered
non-scientific or against democracy, it would face the fate of total
elimination and desertion.

The old tradition and culture were all blamed as the cause of the centuries
of painful disaster and corruption; therefore those “patriots” decided to
throw away all preexisting Chinese culture and old traditions, including
Confucius philosophy and Chinese medicine! The theory of TCM has not
been modernized by adopting the modern sciences yet, and remained
out-of-date and old school thinking as I indicated in Chinese History Part
I, which means its theory cannot be proven scientifically, or was considered
unscientific. Therefore, they made the same decision to throw Chinese
medicine away. Needless to say, it was a big mistake rooted in
misunderstanding! The thoughtless ban created a different holocaust and a
disaster to the precious TCM and Chinese culture in general.

To make things even worse, in 1925 the Department of National Legislature
of R.O.C. passed a law of “Complete Elimination of Traditional Chinese
Medicine Act). Despite criticism from dissidents, the TCM practice was
largely prohibited and the school systems were dismissed ever since in the
ROC. Since then, people who practice Chinese medicine started facing
nationwide persecution and prosecution. They lived in fear with no dignity.
Not only did they have no more formal education, but they became the second
class in the medical field because the government treated them that way.
They were thought of as “those who can’t” or the scum and refuse of the
society, although their patients were normally respectful and grateful to
their Chinese medical doctors as they believed they were the rescuers.

As a result, TCM staggered its way into folk medical practice among the
still large number of believers until the communists took over the mainland
in 1949.

The destiny of TCM really must be divided into two significantly different
geographies – the Republic of China in Taiwan and the People’s Republic of
China in mainland after 1949. In Taiwan’s case, nearly nothing changed as it
inherited the entire legislature from the old government. In mainland, on
the other hand, TCM budded and flourished especially during the otherwise
chaotic Culture Revolution during 1966-1976, partly thanks to the lack of
western doctors, partly to Chairman Mao Ze Dong’s personal preference.

It was not until President Nixon visited China in the mid-70s that people in
the west began to hear and experience the “miracles” of TCM and acupuncture
in particular. It sparked for a while in America in the late 70s and early
80s when patients thronged to acupuncture doctor’s clinics and waited in
long lines. Gradually, the emerging craze became widespread general interest
and underwent serious scrutiny by the medical community. U.S. is a great
country in that although there has been theoretical difference; TCM was
eventually partly recognized by NIH in the late 1990s because of its superb
effectiveness in some cases such as pain management. Despite this
groundbreaking progress, we believe TCM should have been applied and
recognized in a much wider area than just pain management.

The American democratic and grassroots’ system should be given credit for
the well-deserved reincarnation of TCM. Nowadays, many TCM schools are set
up in the U.S., 47 states have licensed acupuncturists and there are 16,000
licensed acupuncture practitioners in the U.S. Surprisingly, even many
Chinese people come to the U.S. to study Chinese medicine! We can reasonably
speculate that in the years to come, the U.S. will be the leader in the TCM
field in terms of research and recognition. With that being said, there are
definitely many obstacles facing us now such as a lack of insurance
compensation, ongoing initiatives to reform the school and
continue-education curriculums, the designation of “Doctor” to TCM
practitioners and so on.

On the other side of the fence, naturally yet ironically, the patients DO
NOT care what the theory is. They are not scientist, FDA members, or Medical
board members; they are just suffering sick people. What really spoke to
them is that Chinese medicine works and that’s exactly the reason the
acupuncture clinics are booming across the country!

Now let’s turn our focus to education, which is the essence of the quality
and longevity of any disciplines. Apprenticeship used to be the only way to
impart knowledge and train next-generation doctors historically. This
situation for TCM persisted for a long time even after the western style
schooling became prevalent in China in other disciplines. In mainland –
since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, especially
in late 80’s, government-supported Chinese Medical schools were set up in
almost every province and major cities, such as in Shanghai, Beijing,
GuangDong, Tianjin, HeBei---. Please check out their curriculum, and you can
find the modern biomedicine courses. Overall, in mainland China, TCM has
gone such a long way since the 50s that today it has its own university,
dedicated research and hospital systems.

In other side of China, Taiwan, R.O.C., Medical Schools of Chinese Medicine
were finally re-established in 2000 and are doing very well. From visiting
the websites: Chinese Medical University, Taiwan /
Curriculum or Chang Gung University, Taiwan and
others, you will find hundreds of modern medical sciences as the required
courses in their core curriculum. Almost all current regular “western”
medical school courses are in their school curriculum.

In conclusion, the clinical evidence of TCM is extraordinary, and has been
like that for thousands of years. Although general pain such as migraine,
neck pain, shoulder pain, lower back pain, etc. are most frequently treated
in the clinic, the application of TCM is comparable to western medicine
(please refer to Patient Testimonials in this
site). Moreover, it is preventive as the doctors view the body as an
integrative system. The success of TCM is merely a matter of time. When it
comes to its educational foundations, fortunately, we are joyfully
witnessing in the regions where TCM is more embraced such as U.S. and China,
there are more and more core medical sciences incorporated into the
curriculums as well as rigorous examinations and licensing systems in place.
We are anxiously expecting more to come!

For to us a child is born, to us a son
is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonderful
Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:4)